There are seven basic Chinese pronouns in Vernacular Chinese: In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. ... Vernacular Chinese (pinyin: Bai hua; Wade-Giles: Pai hua) is a style or register of the written Chinese language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with Standard Mandarin. ...

Originally, Chinese had no distinction for gender in the second- and third-person pronouns, and no distinction for animacy in the third-person either. In fact, in the spoken language, they remain undifferentiated. These characters were created in response to contact with the West and its gender- and animacy-indicating pronouns. (Even now, it is not unusual for native Chinese speakers to fail to differentiate between "he" and "she" in English.)

The difference between 你 and 妳 is not always maintained in writing, but the distinction between 他 and 她 is. 牠 is supposed to be used for nouns referring to animals (note the 牛 radical, which means ox) and 它 for inanimate objects, but this distinction is sometimes blurred. In Simplified Chinese, 妳 and 牠 are both antiquated. Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ...

The collective pronouns are formed by simply adding 们 / 們 mén to the end of each pronoun; thus, 你们, 我们, 咱们, 他/她/牠/它们 or 你們, 我們, 他/她/牠/它們 would mean "you [plural]", "we" and "they" respectively. To indicate the Christian God in writing, 祂 is used. The term Christian means belonging to Christ and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means anointed one, which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written Messiah), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). Christian is primarily an adjective, describing an object associated... The term God, capitalized in English language as a proper noun, is often used to refer vaguely to a Supreme Being. ...

The pronoun 您 nín is used as a formal version of the second person pronoun, but does not have a feminine variant, and is not used in the plural.

There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, including 汝(Ru) for "you", 吾(Wu) for "I". The pronouns listed above are the most common in colloquial speech. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese (文言, pinyin: wényán, literal meaning: literary language or 古文, literal: ancient written language) is a traditional style of written Chinese prose using grammar and vocabulary very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ... A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ...

The Possessive Pronoun

To indicate possession 的 (de) is appended to the pronoun. In literature or in some daily phrases (especially ones about family or concepts very close to the owner) this is often omitted, e.g. 我妈/我媽 (wǒ mā); is a synonym for 我的妈妈/我的媽媽 (wǒ de māmā, "my mother"). In writing, 其(Qi) is often used for "his" or "her"; e.g., 其父 means "His father" or "Her father". Open Directory Project: Literature World Literature Electronic Text Archives Magazines and E-zines Online Writing Writers Resources Libraries, Digital Cataloguing, Metadata Distance Learning Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Classicism in Literature The Universal Library, by Carnegie Mellon University Project Gutenberg Online Library Abacci - Project Gutenberg texts matched with Amazon...

The Reflexive Pronoun

The singular personal pronouns (for humans) may be made reflexive by appending 自己 zìjǐ, "self".

Pronouns in Imperial Times and Self-Depricatory

In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" is commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status. "I" is usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations. Examples include 寡人 guǎrén during early Chinese history and 朕 zhèn after the Qin dynasty when the Emperor is speaking to his subjects. When the subjects speak to the Emperor, they address themselves as 臣(Chen), or "your official". It is extremely impolite and taboo to address the Emperor as "you" or to address oneself as "I". China is one of the worlds oldest continuous major civilizations, with written records dating back at least 3,500 years, and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. ... The Qin Dynasty (秦朝 Pinyin Qín, Wade-Giles Chin; 221 BC - 207 BC) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... The emperor or huangdi (皇帝 in pinyin: huang2 di4) of China was the head of government and head of state of China from the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. ... A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. ...

In modern times, the practice of self-depricatory terms is still used. In resumés, the term 贵/貴(Gui; lit. noble) is used for "you" and "your"; e.g., 贵公司/貴公司 refers to "your company". 本人 (Ben-ren; lit. this person) is used to refer to oneself. Look up Résumé in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Look up Curriculum vitae in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A résumé (in North American English; also sometimes spelled resumé or resume) or curriculum vitae (in Commonwealth English; sometimes abbreviated to CV) is a document containing a summary or listing of...

Inclusive and Exclusive

In Chinese, for the first person plural there are usually two forms:

• 咱们 / 咱們 zánmen — the inclusive (i.e. "you and I", "we, including you")
• 我们 / 我們 wǒmen — the exclusive (i.e. "we, without you").

This distinction is not rigorously maintained by many speakers outside of the Beijing region, the tendency being to generalize the use of 我们 / 我們.

See also

• Chinese grammar
• Chinese language